I've been using the Think Tank Multimedia Wired Up 10 for about three months. I used it very heavily for the first month—almost every day—and it seemed to me that every time I picked it up I discovered a new slot, pocket, cable hole, clip, hook and so on. I'm exaggerating—slightly. The rectangular bag features an integrated waist belt with loops and slots to which Think Tank modular bags, accessory waist system components and holsters can be attached. The waist belt is broadly adjustable, but the wide and padded rear slot can be used with your own belt as well. D-rings abound, as do cable holes and slots, making it possible to easily keep cables and connections from tangling and from getting in the way of fast access to various compartments. The external headphone hook is made of very tough, flexible Delrin and can be used to carry headphones and coiled mic/headphone/audio cable as well.

The main compartment is just big enough to stow a full size multimedia DSLR with mid-range zoom attached, one or two additional small lenses and hoods. There's also room for a large mic and cable. Think Tank supplies the usual bundle of velcro-edged divider panels with which you can customize the interior configuration of the main compartment.

The front accessory compartments carry memory cards, filters, cleaning accessories, small mic and small flash, or the usual small accessories and your portable recorder. The front pocket hinges outward and stops at about a 35 degree angle so you can see and operate a recorder. The expansion side pockets are large enough to hold various models of professional portable recorders such as the Edirol F1 or R-09HR and the Sony PCM-M10 or PCMD50, although portable recorders are best situated in the wide, hinged and zippered front pocket section designed for the purpose.

The Think Tank Multimedia Wired Up 10 is primarily a waist belt system and its design really shines when used that way. The gape created when the bag is unzipped and being carried by a single shoulder strap is too large and, depending on how active you are an any given moment, anything that's top heavy and standing in the bag is in danger of toppling out. Use the integrated waist belt—that's the basis of the carry design and it works extremely well. The overall design tends to force disorganized shooters into being more organized, because once you begin using the cable management features you'll never go back to just tossing cable and connectors around and spending more time untangling cable than using cable. If you prefer a shoulder carry and or need additional weight support with heavy gear, use the supplied pair of Think Tank shoulder straps in a crossing configuration attached to the d-rings on the bag and waist belt.

My headphones are now off my arm—that is, when they're not in use I no longer have to store my headphones on my arm or around my neck while shifting locations in the field. I used to walk way too far with headphones either dropped around my neck or over my arm. The headphone hook makes a great place to hang headphones momentarily or for long periods. The hooks slips and locks onto the integrated waist belt and can be positioned anywhere along the left or right side of the belt.

I've always got extra cable hanging in loops and festoons. No more with this bag. Make a couple of (or a few or ten or whatever) loops, squeeze together, then stuff the result into any one of several elastic storage bands sewn to the outside of the bag. Pay out more cable simply by pulling a loop or two out of the storage band.

Weather resistance is good, but the Think Tank Multimedia Wired Up 10 is supplied with an elasticized, rip-stop nylon, waterproof rain cover for a reason. Use it. The bag's basic weather resistance is excellent—on the order of about 45-60 minutes of resistance to light drizzle before any penetration—but expensive photo/video and audio gear is far too valuable to leave to chance. As usual, Think Tank seems to be exerting very good quality control at its manufacturing locations, so despite being caught in a couple of nasty late spring and early summer downpours, the bag remained tight and dry. When you first receive a Multimedia Wired Up bag, you'll find the rain cover stowed in the main compartment. We found that the best place to stow it while the bag is in use is actually in the velcro storage slot which runs the length and width of the outside bottom of the bag, a location which also adds some bottom padding.

Think Tank seems to be consistently refining and re-thinking the way in which it uses padding. All of the Multimedia Wired Up series are great examples of a bag design which feels relatively lightly padded, but which is in fact quite well padded. Keep in mind that extra-heavy materials and extra thick padding add weight and provide diminishing benefits in terms of protection vs. usability. At 38 ounces/1100 grams as tested and used for several months, the bag's overall weight was inconsequential and never failed to fully protect gear that was properly stowed.

A neighbor of mine—an avid bird watcher—asked about the Multimedia Wired Up bags during the test and review period. Turns out he was interested in not only watching and photographing rare birds, but also recording their songs. I loaned the bag to him for a week and for obvious reasons had a hard time getting it back. He liked it despite the fact it couldn't hold his Nikkor 200-400 f.4 VR zoom lens (which he simply carried in a Think Tank Lens Changer 300, which although not quite tall enough for the lens, made an ideal off-camera walkabout carry).

Cons: The elasticized side pockets are well made and moderately useful, but we prefer the versatility and greater security of zipped/hinged pockets similar to the terrific, hinged front pocket. There's no really sensible way to use the bag with a single shoulder strap; it's possible but makes the bag less practical, the main problem being the location of the attachments for a single strap. Think Tank supplies two shoulder straps, not one, because they're catering to active shooters who need cross shoulder support for additional weight. For waist belt carry only in our opinion.